UMECUnited Mining Exploration Commission: A group of friends playing JumpGate-- "a MMORPG that launched smoothly, breaks from fantasy character setting, emphasizes PvP, and is the first persistent world space simulator that nobody talks about." ~Scorch

Finally bought the game via the internet a few days ago...played the demo for years. Anyone else got it too? I'd love to crank up the old email BBS galaxy conquest engine.
Oh, there's a few links for anyone interested:

Having said that, i've been looking up stuff on how to host and have been trolling the usenet forums for cool stuff and found a cool map proggie.
rec.games.computer.stars (look for MajorFreak. you'll find me blabbing on about my k3wl 1337 h4xx0r r4c3)
It's called Xtreme Borders (plus patch)and it looks damned nice (let's you figure out the estimated habitability zones of your ENEMIES...which is a really handy thing to know. *g*) This program doesn't have a readme.txt or a help file, and you'll need to fiddle with a couple stars files.

Second thing you need to do is delete any data dumps you've done (you probably have never tried it, but you never know)
Look for and delete any .map .pla .fle files in your stars directory. There. that's it, just install the program, restart the stars software and dump your stats by choosing the "report" menu bar action and selecting all the "dump to text file" options...After that run Xtreme Borders and load your .map file. (the proggie reads all the data. it's simple after that.)

sure, me and lormar were playing for a bit but stopped about a month ago. We were gonna restart sometime, so i suppose you could join us. i'll let him know to drop by and we could probably round up a posse.

i was at USENET's forum and learned alot about BBS play as opposed to AI work. I started a thread that ended up with 70 posts...it all started with me asking if 10% growth was optimal for my Antetheral race variant. see here

I'm having problems using the serials for the 2.7j patch tough... Maybe it's just some new "security feature" that you have to enter the serial each time you start stars!..

PM me your email, and I can mail it to you. ~2mb zip.

EDIT: Seems like the 20 serials included in the *cough* special full version are added to Stars! internal shitlist. Suffice to say, they're not valid serials in 2.7j... Will look for others, but I doubt there's any.

Stars Drinking Game
By Daniel Janow
You all know how Drinking games work, you have beer (or soda) nearby and Drink everytime something happens. I am not promoting Drinking alchohol until you die, it just sounds funny, so without further delay, I present the Stars Drinking game!

You attempt to colonize a planet but forget to bring colonists along. Drink!
You design a spectacular new ship for colonization, build the ships, put the people on but forget to give the ship a colonization module. Drink!
Your colonizer runs out of fuel en route to a planet which your enemy colonizes first. Drink!
While Drinking, you drop beer on the keyboard and electrocute yourself. Drink!
You colonize the wrong planet, Drink!
You colonize stinky socks, Drink!
Your armed probe destroys an enemy ship, Drink!
You forget to set planetary orders for your homeworld before a force gen of 500 years, Drink!
You forget to password protect your race file, Drink!
Your hosts computer crashes, Drink!
Your a host, and your entire computer gets wiped out, Drink!
An enemy sends out a Borg type of message "All will bow before me, surrender or die!" Drink!
Someone's race name is the same as yours, take two Drinks!
Your race is blitzed and you die, take two Drinks!
You name a ship the U.S.S. Daniel Janow, take 5 Drinks!
Your diplomatic negotions erupt in name calling, Drink!
Diplomacy fails, war is inevitable, until you find that your both allies in another game, Drink!
Your fleet of 1000 Battleships is wiped out by going through a standard minefield at warp 10, take 2 Drinks!
Someone makes a referance to your race as "A tasty after dinner snack", Drink!
A numbers player brutally massacres your race, Drink!
Someone makes a statement meant to be amusing, but it reveals their homeworld, PRT, etc. Drink!
Someone leaves the game because their race is going to be destroyed, rather then lose, they say "I'm not playing on ______ (Insert technicality here)". Drink!
Your fleet kicks major ass at a battle, only be destroyed by the enemies real fleet arriving a second later. Drink!
You fight a major battle at Stinky Socks... You win, Drink! You lose, take 2 Drinks!
A mineral packet is sent screaming towards a world without a starbase, your ship can intercept it precisely one year after it hits the planet, Drink!
You make a treaty, Drink!
You break a treaty, Drink!
Someone uses chaffs, Drink!
You evacuate a planet, Drink!
Your beaten by an AI, take 5 Drinks!
Your password is your exact race name, Drink!
You hunt down a mystery trader, Drink!
He gives you a useless ship of his, Drink!
You surrender your empire, then download a viscious virus into the person who beat you's computer. He feels sad, take 10 Drinks!
If your home planet is Lopsided, take a Drink.
If you upgrade with a patch that makes your current race/strategy/fleet useless, 5 Drinks.
Your race is a minimally modified copy of something you saw on this ng, Drink. If it was a Jason Cawley race, take 5 Drinks.
If a comet hits your HW, take a Drink. If it makes it red, take five Drinks.
If a CA makes your HW red, tak a Drink. If a PP does, take 5.
If you are even playing a CA, take a Drink, you shameless %@*.
If you are bi-immune, take a Drink.
If you are a HP, take a Drink. If a HG, take two. If neither, take 5,
and pray.
If you are designing a metamorph/galleon etc. and find yourself reminiscing about your old "suicide" self-destruct design, Drink.
If you design a ship using only a basic hull and MT toys, Drink. Drink again if a special racial hull, or twice more if it is a mini-morph.
If you design a ship that could destroy itself twice over with one shot, Drink.
If you crush someone without even bothering to talk to them because they are "unimportant," take three Drinks.
If you use the Stars! calculator for something, take a Drink. If you use
a normal calculator or spreadsheet for something complicated, take "e"
Drinks, unless it's an HP, where you take "e" Drinks before using it. If
you use paper and a pencil/pen, take "pi" Drinks. If you do the math in
your head, take "i" Drinks.
If you forget an important LRT of your race, Drink. If you forget your PRT, 5 Drinks.
You can settle a planet, and you know where the name comes from, Drink.
The enemy has a counterdesign for your fleet than can kill it using half the iron and reources, Drink.
If you submit a bug to the Jeffs and they acknowledge it as a bug, Drink. If it is a feature, Drink twice.
If you save an ng article for later use, Drink. Twice, if Jason or Jeff wrote
it.
If you attack someone and find out to your regret later that they are a
SD or SS, Drink.
If another player makes a major diplomatic decision regarding your race
for *purely* roleplaying reasons, take a Drink. If it is an alliance,
take two.
If you successfull colonize a pocket empire through a wormhole, Drink.
If you're playing in a huge universe for the first time, Drink. If there's less
than 10 players, Drink every day for the duration of the game ( welcome to alcoholism. )
If you find out your opponent is a ng guru, take two Drinks.
If you find out the race you just stomped belonged to a ng guru, take five Drinks - congrats.
If you make your own stars! spreadsheets, take three Drinks.
If you try and trade with the same MT twice, take two Drinks. Three times, take three Drinks. Four times, give up stars!.
Take a Drink for every version of Stars! you've owned.
If you play an AR, take a Drink when you begin. If you find out your neighbor is a WM, take several more Drinks.
If you have RS, take three Drinks when the BB era starts. Give your enemies free Drinks when you make it to nubians.
If you've ever had stars! crash, take two Drinks. You must be shocked._________________"Smile . . . your post has been deleted"